1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,400
Tell me Edmund, have you someone
special in your life?

2
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,560
Well, yes, as a matter of fact,
I do. Who?

3
00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:08,800
Me.

4
00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:15,360
No, I mean, someone you love and
cherish and want to keep safe

5
00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:17,160
from all the horror and the hurt.

6
00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:19,600
Mmm... Still me really.

7
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:22,120
I was travelling on a plane

8
00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:25,720
several years ago and an
episode of The Blackadder

9
00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,560
came up on the
entertainment channels,

10
00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,600
and it was the nurse episode from
the fourth series with Miranda,

11
00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:37,920
and, as far as I'm aware, it was an
episode that I had never, ever seen.

12
00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:42,360
Cigarette? No, thank you. I only
smoke cigarettes after making love.

13
00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,880
So, back in England,
I'm a 20-a-day man.

14
00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:52,320
I'm not a great laugher, sadly,
but I might have sniggered at it,

15
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,960
which was my way of saying,
"That was very funny."

16
00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:04,240
Remarkably, Blackadder first
slithered on to our screens
all of 25 years ago.

17
00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:10,280
I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for
a ton of cash, an amusing clock
and a sack of French porn.

18
00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:14,200
So tonight, we celebrate the series
that sired a comic generation

19
00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,840
and a quantum of quotable lines.

20
00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,200
You've really worked out your
banter, haven't you? No, not really.

21
00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,400
This is a different thing. It's
spontaneous and it's called wit.

22
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:29,120
We travel by train, plane,
boat and automobile to track down

23
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,160
the original cast and creators
who'd gone on to conquer

24
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:34,320
all corners
of the known universe.

25
00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:35,560
Baaah!

26
00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,640
If you should falter,
remember that Captain Darling
and I are behind you.

27
00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:42,680
About 35 miles behind you.

28
00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,720
We travel from Northumberland...

29
00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,400
When we filmed here, it was the first
time I'd ever met a camp Geordie.

30
00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,440
..to northern France.

31
00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:55,160
If ever there was a subject
requiring of satire,

32
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,680
it's people blindly going to war.

33
00:01:57,680 --> 00:01:59,520
From Hollywood...

34
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:01,520
There were some rather large egos.

35
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,360
I happen to be perfect,
but everyone else
is just a sort of big-headed twerp.

36
00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:08,880
..to the Horn of Africa.

37
00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:12,560
After Blackadder, I sort of
semi-retired really, and I bought

38
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,600
this small African town, Potendwe,

39
00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,680
and the land you can see there,
up until the hills, that's all mine.

40
00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:22,520
Behind is Christopher Biggins',
except the hill further on.

41
00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:25,400
That's the S Club 7 and Boyzone
accountant.

42
00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,720
Blackadder, to remind those
from another planet,

43
00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:38,160
followed the exploits of the
devilishly cunning Edmund Blackadder

44
00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,600
and his trustily stupid
sidekick, Baldrick.

45
00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:43,720
Baldrick, believe me.

46
00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:47,880
Eternity and the company of Beelzebub
and all his hellish instruments

47
00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:53,360
of death will be a picnic compared to
five minutes with me and this pencil.

48
00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,760
The pair journey from the
mayhem of the Middle Ages...

49
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,520
through the terrible Tudors...

50
00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,600
to the gorgeous Georgians...

51
00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:05,760
Hurrah!

52
00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,600
..ending up in the First World War.

53
00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:11,680
MACHINE GUN FIRE

54
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,960
As an historical sitcom, it's
timeless and keeps on twisting

55
00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:22,080
and turning its way into
the public's affections like...

56
00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,000
Well, a twisty, turney thing.

57
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:26,080
And your chosen subject.

58
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,560
Blackadder. Blackadder the TV series.

59
00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:29,760
Blackadder Goes Forth.

60
00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,360
It's even the backbone
of school history lessons.

61
00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,840
Now who's heard of Blackadder?

62
00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:37,960
I want to be remembered
when I'm dead.

63
00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:41,080
I want books written about me,
I want songs sung about me,

64
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,720
and then, hundreds of years from
now, I want episodes from my life

65
00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:47,520
to be played out weekly at
half-past nine

66
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,880
by some great heroic
actor of the age.

67
00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:55,320
Now, for the first time, Blackadder
himself, Rowan Atkinson,

68
00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:59,520
and producer John Lloyd are
re-tracing the story of the show,

69
00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,600
a story that began at Oxford
University, where a young Atkinson

70
00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:07,480
first met the show's
fellow creator, Richard Curtis.

71
00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,760
I did nothing of a theatrical nature

72
00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,960
in my first term at Oxford.

73
00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:20,960
You know, I was
just relishing the whole,

74
00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,840
you know, slightly olde-worlde, you
know, privileged nature of the place,

75
00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:28,280
and going to endless organ recitals.
I was a great lover of the organ.

76
00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:34,560
I met Rowan in a small room -
a don's room in some college

77
00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,400
with people who'd answered
an advertisement

78
00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:41,440
for The Etceteras, which was
the Oxford sketch-writing group.

79
00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:46,120
He described me as
being like a cushion,

80
00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:49,960
like a cushion, because I sat
on the chair and said nothing.

81
00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:51,680
I thought he was a stuffed toy.

82
00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,680
I mean, he didn't say anything
for the first three meetings,

83
00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:57,120
just a curiously shaped
object in the corner.

84
00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,400
And just when we were trying to
decide what the material should be,

85
00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,000
and we'd all been handing in
sketches for months,

86
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,480
Rowan actually stood up and did two
absolutely astonishing sketches.

87
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:11,520
Endsleigh?

88
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:17,800
Babcock?

89
00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:21,480
Bland?

90
00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:26,360
I was an enormous
admirer of Rowan Atkinson.

91
00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,360
I'd seen him in Edinburgh where
he'd been a cult performer

92
00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:30,600
from his earliest performances.

93
00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:32,680
Nancy-Boy Potter?

94
00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:40,120
Nibble?

95
00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,240
'And I don't remember ever
having laughed so much.'

96
00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,160
I genuinely weed myself
at one point.

97
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:49,280
Just a small amount, you'll
be pleased to know,

98
00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:51,720
but I did wee myself
at Rowan's schoolmaster monologue.

99
00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:56,160
Nibble! Leave Orifice alone.

100
00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:06,000
Not The Nine O'Clock News, the show
that brought alternative comedy

101
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,200
to TV, was the next step
for Rowan and Richard.

102
00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:15,000
It was while working together on
the ground-breaking sketch show

103
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:19,040
that the idea for Blackadder started
to take shape,

104
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,800
and they made a pilot
that's never been seen till now.

105
00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,000
Then there's the Morris dancers.
We're not having them.

106
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:37,400
Morris dancing is the most
despicable entertainment

107
00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:38,480
I've ever seen.

108
00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,960
A load of effeminate blacksmiths
waving bits of white cloth

109
00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:43,120
they've been wiping their noses on.

110
00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,160
It's a positive health hazard.
KNOCK ON DOOR

111
00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:47,040
Go away!

112
00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:51,640
The thing we really didn't want
to do was anything that could,

113
00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:55,320
in any sense, be compared
to Fawlty Towers.

114
00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:57,880
That was...that was almost
the starting point.

115
00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:01,400
There's one thing you mustn't be,
Fawlty Towers, or anything like it.

116
00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:04,440
And of course the great inspiration
on the other side of it,

117
00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,920
the thing we DID want it to be quite
like was Errol Flynn's Robin Hood.

118
00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:16,960
The pilot turned
into the first series,

119
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:18,960
featuring a Blackadder
very different

120
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:22,000
from the brilliant bounder
we came to know.

121
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,400
What a little turd!

122
00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:29,640
It was a grand affair,
set in the Middle Ages

123
00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,280
at the stately
Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

124
00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:39,400
Well, so, 25 years ago,

125
00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:44,280
we found ourselves coming to
this town for the first time.

126
00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,080
Oh, look, there's a bit of castle,
there's the sort of gate.

127
00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,640
I'm sure, when we came on
the recce, we thought,

128
00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:51,560
oh, no, this is really
disappointing.

129
00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:53,800
Is that it? Just that gate. Yeah.

130
00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:55,840
Oh, dear, that's a bit squat.

131
00:07:56,920 --> 00:07:58,480
Oh, my God, there it is.

132
00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:02,320
Now this does ring bells. Yes.

133
00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:07,120
Although I have to say the whole feel
is an awful lot more spruce.

134
00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:10,040
It's a lot... It's very trim,
isn't it? It wasn't like this.

135
00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:11,960
I mean, look at that grass.

136
00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,760
You know, there are lots of castles
in, you know, Kent or somewhere

137
00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:33,800
which just don't have this sense of
openness and bleakness

138
00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:38,000
which Alnwick has,
particularly in the snow in February.

139
00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,880
All I can remember is thinking,
"Look at all this stuff..."

140
00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:42,760
This place would have
been full of people,

141
00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:45,200
as far as the eye could see.
Horses and dogs...

142
00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:52,520
This is where the
first shot we shot begins,
as you say goodbye to Baldrick.

143
00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:58,800
And I remember the fantastic
sound of hooves on these stones,

144
00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,360
on this stone inside this tunnel.

145
00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:05,720
And I remember, when you were
on that horse that first day,

146
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,960
you leaned down from the horse
and there was a little dewdrop

147
00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:11,800
hanging off the end of your nose
because it was so cold.

148
00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:13,480
Oh, yes, yes. The raindrop there,

149
00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:14,880
and then you said,

150
00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,000
"What voice shall I use?"

151
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,560
Help! Help! We haven't thought
about this at all.

152
00:09:22,560 --> 00:09:24,040
Get out of my way!

153
00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:26,640
Are you going on a journey, my lord?

154
00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,280
No, I thought I'd stand
here all day and talk to you.

155
00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:31,960
Well, you'll be needing
someone to tend your horse then.

156
00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:33,720
What is your profession?

157
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,280
One two three, one two three!

158
00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:42,080
My God, a retired Morris dancer.

159
00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:46,280
I found this the other day. I
actually kept a diary of a few days.

160
00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:48,440
"12th February 1983.

161
00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,600
"Filming has been
fantastically slow and tedious.

162
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:54,080
"The snow comes down on
the words 'turn over'

163
00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:58,520
"as if summoned by an incantation
and a remarkable variety
of textures.

164
00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:00,560
"Often it's as big as gravel stones,

165
00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:03,680
"and the flagstones look like a
working model of Brownian motion."

166
00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:05,240
Oh, that's rather...

167
00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:07,040
Some lyrical writing!

168
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,080
Very well written. Thank you so much!

169
00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:11,920
Rather better than the series!

170
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,400
"On Monday, Tuesday,
worried dreadfully that

171
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,640
"Rowan's character was a disaster,
but it seems to be gelling well."

172
00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:22,880
Oh, oh. It's gelled.

173
00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:25,160
"Tim McInnerny is brilliant,
as is Tony Robinson,

174
00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:31,240
"quite splendid juices being
squeezed from a rather
shrivelled selection of lemons."

175
00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:33,640
What comes in my head first
about series one

176
00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,240
is freezing to
death in Alnwick Castle.

177
00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,320
I can remember on the very
first day, Tim McInnerny and I

178
00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:40,960
started to get the giggles

179
00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:42,600
because in the previous hour,

180
00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:45,680
we'd been subjected to five different
kinds of snow.

181
00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:50,040
It was everything the
north-east had to throw at us.

182
00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:52,800
"The hailstones are as fat
as Mint Imperials

183
00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:55,840
"and it's so cold, we have to
wear our long-johns in the bath."

184
00:10:55,840 --> 00:11:00,040
Despite its quite graphic description
of the difficult conditions,

185
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,280
actually, the
tone is quite optimistic.

186
00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,320
I mean, you don't sound like a
man about to jump off a cliff.

187
00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:09,600
What used to be strong about
British comedy

188
00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:12,040
was that people
went from writing sketches

189
00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:16,440
to writing a sitcom, and their
sketchcraft was carried through.

190
00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:19,400
Let's get down to business,
shall we? Business, my lord?

191
00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:25,120
Yes. Baldrick has been looking at
some of the ways we can actually
make a bit of money at this job.

192
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:29,160
Some of the things that are best
in series one are really sketches.

193
00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:32,320
There appear to be
four major profit areas.

194
00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:37,240
Curses, pardons, relics and selling
the sexual favours of the nuns.

195
00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:39,200
Selling the sexual favours of nuns?

196
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:41,320
Yeah. You mean some
people actually pay for them?

197
00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:43,520
Well, foreign
businessmen, other nuns...

198
00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:45,360
'We weren't an ensemble
at that time'

199
00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:47,440
and, in a way, for me, I think,

200
00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:50,160
that scene was the first time
that it really gelled.

201
00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:54,480
Moving on to relics, we've got
shrouds from Turin.

202
00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,960
Wine from the wedding at Cana.

203
00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:01,160
Splinters from the Cross.

204
00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:06,400
And of course, there's all the stuff
made by Jesus in his
days in the carpentry shop.

205
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:10,960
We've got pipe racks,
coffee-tables, coat stands.

206
00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:14,640
Waterproof sandals.
That's what I remember.

207
00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:19,680
This was my one good scene in
the first Blackadder series.

208
00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:20,920
'I was so pleased I got this.'

209
00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:22,720
I haven't finished this one yet.

210
00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:24,080
It's so verbal, isn't it?

211
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,600
Nice props,
I'm not knocking them at all,

212
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:30,320
but just the three of us
being serious and pulling faces.

213
00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:31,320
'Absolutely.'

214
00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:35,120
I have here a true relic.

215
00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:37,200
What is it?

216
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,480
It is a bone
from the finger of our Lord.

217
00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,280
It cost me 31 pieces of silver.

218
00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:48,280
'Baldrick, you stand amazed.'

219
00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:51,040
I am. I thought they
only came in boxes of 10.

220
00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:52,840
'Look at you!'

221
00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:55,200
You should be shot for
that kind of acting.

222
00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:56,880
No, I could have been much worse.

223
00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,520
I remember Blackadder
being lots of fun.

224
00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:03,400
In the end, you are about as much
use to me as a hole in the head -

225
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:06,080
an affliction with which
you must be familiar,

226
00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:08,440
having never actually had a brain.

227
00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:09,360
Hello!

228
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,280
The Spanish Infanta
didn't know she was ugly.

229
00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:14,800
That's the
sad thing, really, about it.

230
00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,400
Here I am, awaiting the arrival
of the most beautiful, ravishing...

231
00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:19,400
Hello!

232
00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:22,880
Leave me alone, will you?
I'm trying to talk to someone.

233
00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:25,760
..while you're wittering away like
a pox-ridden moorhen.

234
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:26,920
SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

235
00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:32,400
She loved Blackadder, and she was
electrified, sexually, by him.

236
00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:39,680
SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

237
00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:42,160
I've waited for this
moment all of my life

238
00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:45,000
SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

239
00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:48,680
Your nose is smaller
than I expected.

240
00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:50,880
For him, it was tough.

241
00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:54,400
He felt a huge responsibility,

242
00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:56,360
kind of carrying the show.

243
00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,680
It's extraordinary, the physical
difference with Rowan,

244
00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:04,920
between the
first and second series. Yeah.

245
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,440
Do your funny walk then, Adder.

246
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:11,240
Moi? Do the funny Blackadder walk.

247
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,440
I haven't got a
funny Blackadder walk.

248
00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,480
You did one like that!

249
00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:17,920
'Or something weaselly.'

250
00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,400
What seems odd now is that

251
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:28,680
Tony was the streetwise, smart guy,
and Rowan was an idiot.

252
00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:41,240
Incredibly dysfunctional,
almost twisted person.

253
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:43,920
A bit like what Mr Bean became.

254
00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,440
Rowan wasn't entirely relaxed
in the first series,

255
00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:52,280
as were none of us,
because we weren't quite sure...

256
00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:53,680
not quite sure
what we were doing.

257
00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:56,880
Rowan's character wasn't properly
sorted out.

258
00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:59,760
Oh, my God, this is impossible!
I can't do this.

259
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:04,920
We tried to do too much with
Rowan's character in series one,

260
00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:11,160
cos he was sort of aggressive and
stupid and posh and cowardly
and brave,

261
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:15,520
so it was a sort of agglomeration
of quite a few funny things

262
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,880
that we knew Rowan could do.

263
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,280
But it's interesting how, you know,

264
00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:26,320
an amusing costume and a daft haircut
an amusing character doth not make!

265
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:32,480
I sat there wanting to laugh and
unable to, a lot of the time.

266
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:36,640
I did laugh quite a lot, but I
hope desperately that I shall
laugh more the next week.

267
00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:39,760
What exactly is funny about this?

268
00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,320
What is funny about having
that character?

269
00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:47,520
Farewell, sweet England,
and noble castle!

270
00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:52,360
First watering place in the desert
of my life.

271
00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:58,960
Farewell, gentle giblets
and sweet crenellations,

272
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,520
and farewell, dearest gutters!

273
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:04,760
I remember that famous
comment of yours.

274
00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:08,120
It looks like a million dollars but
it cost a million pounds.

275
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:13,560
I suppose a good thing about the
modern BBC is that they would
never have allowed us to do this.

276
00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:15,520
You know, to do what we did.

277
00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:19,200
I mean, you know, they would never,
you know, have just let

278
00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:22,640
a few young, you know, creative
people come up to Alnwick and shoot.

279
00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,440
Well, no, they wouldn't, but then,
on the other hand,

280
00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:27,720
we were very
proud of it at the time we did it.

281
00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,560
The basic fault is the script,
because Rowan Atkinson

282
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,000
and this chap who he writes with,
have written an awful lot,

283
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:35,840
and it seems that six episodes
are too much for them.

284
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,920
There are a lot of half-employed
script writers who could have been
brought in to good effect.

285
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:47,240
There was in fact a slightly more
than half-employed scriptwriter
knocking about.

286
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,880
Ben Elton was behind the
cult series of The Young Ones

287
00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:54,120
and was brought in to hone
the writing of the second series.

288
00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:55,720
Is the sitcom written?

289
00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:58,360
I mean, not the sitcom,
the drama, the comedy. Well...

290
00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:02,640
That sounds like a good idea.
I'm working on a pilot,
I'm working on a pilot episode.

291
00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,920
I've now had a screening council,
and the end is hard to get right,

292
00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:08,360
and I don't know how to
get the special effects right.

293
00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:14,680
I think we met at a script meeting
for what was going to turn
into Spitting Image,

294
00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:18,880
and I was startled to find
a huge fan of Blackadder I.

295
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:22,360
These were before the days of
ratings. That was always the shock.

296
00:17:22,360 --> 00:17:26,400
I mean, I still don't know how many
people watched any episode of
Blackadder.

297
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,640
And I remember on BBC...

298
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:31,560
Well, I used to wander round
Shepherd's Bush

299
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:33,960
looking at people's windows,

300
00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:37,760
particularly people with basement
flats, to see whether or not
anyone was watching.

301
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:41,040
You were looking for any nude girls
who'd left their windows...

302
00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:44,080
No, I was looking to see
if anyone was watching Blackadder.

303
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,560
One didn't know whether
it would be a success.

304
00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:51,200
I wondered who that kind of
ginger perv was whilst Kate and
I were singing the theme tune.

305
00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,400
'He lived rough.

306
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,040
'He talked rough.

307
00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:59,480
'He wore a ruff.

308
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:01,760
'Blackadder II.

309
00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:04,400
'Coming soon.

310
00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:05,920
'Ish.'

311
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,440
They would sit in different rooms,
probably even in different houses,

312
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:11,880
having divided the series
into two halves,

313
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:14,720
and they'd write three
episodes each and then swap over.

314
00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:17,240
It always led you somewhere else.
OK, execution,

315
00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:19,440
head cut off, how's
he gonna get out of it?

316
00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:21,760
Stick the head down
the back of his tights. Obvious!

317
00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:24,920
'But maybe not obvious to the person
who started with the beheading.'

318
00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:26,720
Oh, Percy!

319
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,600
I've got the body, my lord,
and I see you've got the head.

320
00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:31,040
Yes, but it's no good, Percy.

321
00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:34,280
No-one's ever gonna believe we've
just cut it off. It's gone green!

322
00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:38,920
Ben and I never wrote together,
mainly because we had better
things to do with our time.

323
00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:41,200
We were both completely obsessed
by pop music.

324
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:44,280
Madness, very great era for Madonna.

325
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:47,400
I seem to remember endless meetings
when all we talked about

326
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:49,920
was which was our
favourite track on True Blue.

327
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:54,560
And I remember us going to see
Kylie Minogue, and we were
literally the only two men there.

328
00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:58,040
It was very early on in her career,
and the entire audience was made up

329
00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:01,920
of 30-year-old women who watched
Neighbours and their daughters,

330
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:06,120
who also watched Neighbours,
and were, by the time Kylie came on,
fast asleep.

331
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:12,240
However enjoyable the writing
process and however well the scripts
were shaping up,

332
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,880
Ben and Richard were less than
lucky, lucky, lucky

333
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:18,680
to get an ominous letter from
the BBC's head of comedy.

334
00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,520
Michael Grade had come in,
and he looked at the ratings,

335
00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:22,800
and it doesn't stack up.

336
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,040
It's not good enough for the little
ratings they're getting,

337
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:28,360
and it doesn't get
enough good reviews. It's finished.

338
00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:30,520
And I remember
the sentence very clearly.

339
00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:32,680
"For this season, and
realistically that means for good.

340
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,080
"Very sorry about this. It's over."

341
00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:37,200
At which point,

342
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,880
a combination really of John Lloyd,
Rowan Atkinson and Rowan's agent,

343
00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:43,960
Richard Armitage, at the time,
went into overdrive.

344
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,360
There was this mad weekend where
Richard, Ben and I were sitting

345
00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:50,400
at three typewriters, desperately
cutting up out all the film,

346
00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:52,840
taking up anything that had
a silly costume,

347
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:54,280
that was at all expensive,

348
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,520
and we went back, I went back
two days later,

349
00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:01,040
the beginning of the next week, to
John Davies, and said, "Here you are.

350
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:05,240
"These are the cheapest
sitcoms on telly, and please
may we have another chance?"

351
00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:08,800
The key element to the success
of the second series though,

352
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,880
would be the transformation of
Blackadder himself

353
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:17,320
from nerdy medieval prince
of series one
to suave Elizabethan courtier.

354
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:22,320
The very first lesson was to pick
Rowan's character,

355
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:26,160
to get it exactly clear
what it was he was gonna do,

356
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:31,080
and, as Ben says, there was
a whole imperious, sarcastic,

357
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,320
posh side of Rowan
which we both loved,

358
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:37,840
which we knew how to write, which
came very naturally to both of us.

359
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,400
Tell me, young crone. Is this Putney?

360
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,800
Indeed. That it be.

361
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:45,560
Yes it is, not "that it be".

362
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,960
You don't have to talk in that stupid
voice to me, I'm not a tourist.

363
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:55,600
It's lovely to have this sort of
pecking order, and to place

364
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,480
Blackadder somewhere in it,
somewhere in the middle,

365
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,920
so he can be very cynical
about those above him,

366
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:02,800
and very cynical about those
below him.

367
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,600
Oh, very good shot, my lord.

368
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:08,000
Thank you, Baldrick.

369
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,680
Sorry I'm late.
No, don't bother apologising.

370
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:13,960
I'm sorry you're alive.

371
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,160
'There's a thing about
comedy in Britain.

372
00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:20,000
'Britain's a terrible place
for class, as everybody knows.'

373
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,280
You look at a...
I don't know, a sitcom.

374
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:26,880
The moment the lights go up, as it
were, and you think, "Oh, God, it's
upper-class people.

375
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:31,440
"I don't care about them."
Or, "Oh, God, it's middle-class
dentists, I don't care about them."

376
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,600
Or, "Oh, God, it's wacky Scousers,
I don't care about them."

377
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:35,680
You know what I mean?

378
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:40,920
Everybody seems to hate everybody
else in Britain and thinks up a
reason not to care about them.

379
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,600
And one of the marvellous things
about Blackadder II

380
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:48,000
and the subsequent Blackadders is
that they are set in a very rigidly
hierarchical world.

381
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,480
My Lord. The Queen does demand your
urgent presence on pain of death.

382
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:56,960
Oh, damn. The path of my life
is strewn with cowpats

383
00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,000
from the devil's own satanic herd.

384
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:00,240
You've got real threat.

385
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:04,680
Blackadder is going to have his
head chopped off at any moment.
It's perfectly possible.

386
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,720
This mad, capricious queen really
could say, "This time I mean it."

387
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,640
Ooh, Edmund.
I do love it when you get cross.

388
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:15,960
Sometimes I think about having
you executed just to see the
expression on your face.

389
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,120
It's within court,

390
00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:24,600
which is a very
small, bejewelled world, you know.

391
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:26,920
There are these little people
in there,

392
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:31,280
who think they rule the world,
and of course it was only me
that ruled the world.

393
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:34,960
What is it? A stick.

394
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:38,840
Is it a stick, Lord Blackadder?

395
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,080
Yes, Ma'am. But it is a very
special stick,

396
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:46,120
because, when you
throw it away, it comes back!

397
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:48,760
Oh, well!

398
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,800
That's no good, is it?

399
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:54,880
Because, when I throw things away,
I don't want them to come back!

400
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:57,120
You! Get rid of it.

401
00:22:57,120 --> 00:23:00,720
'Richard and Ben had created
this idea, which was the Queen

402
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:03,200
'was like, a little girl with
an enormous amount of power.'

403
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:06,120
I think we interviewed
40 actresses,

404
00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:08,720
and we really were beginning
to get desperate.

405
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,760
It was probably written in a
pretty two-dimensional way,

406
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,040
and they all just were
playing girls from Bedales.

407
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:18,400
The 41st person who walked in,
when we were really about
to shoot ourselves,

408
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,920
was this blonde who
clearly hadn't washed her hair.

409
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:26,200
Apparently I walked in like
something that had been pulled
through a hedge backwards.

410
00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:27,280
Spot the difference!

411
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:33,440
Here was this astonishing actress
who did nothing like we expected it.

412
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,120
Every line was odd,
peculiar, weirdly pitched.

413
00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:41,600
I may have the body
of a weak and feeble woman.

414
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:43,600
But I have the heart and stomach...

415
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,680
..of a concrete elephant.

416
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:51,240
Prove it! Certainly will.

417
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,800
First I'm going to have
a little drinkie,

418
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,840
and then I'm going to execute
the whole bally lot of you.

419
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,040
Unbeknown to most
people, and Miranda,

420
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,160
in a secret corner of the BBC,
where few dare to tread,

421
00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:13,440
there's the forgotten
costumes department.

422
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:15,480
In the bowels of the building.

423
00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,840
What has it got in its pockets?

424
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,120
Oh! God!

425
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,560
This looks rather familiar.

426
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:35,920
Ah!

427
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:39,880
I hope several
hundred moths don't fly out.

428
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,720
Look at this!

429
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,360
Look at the...
And even the work in the...

430
00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:47,640
in the cuffs.

431
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:54,280
All these little individual
pearls, most of them
still there, just bobbling away.

432
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:56,800
I remember the weight.

433
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:04,120
Bloody hell! Yes, that dear friend,
as I remembered. And not only...

434
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:11,000
Not only the dress, not only
the wig, not only the ruff,
but also a pomander

435
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,400
and a mirror attached to my dress.

436
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,040
Do I look absolutely divine
and regal

437
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:20,360
and yet and at the same time
very pretty and rather accessible?

438
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:25,160
You are every jolly jacktar's
dream, Majesty.

439
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:26,560
I thought as much.

440
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,800
Had we not lucked out
in getting Miranda,

441
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,480
probably Blackadder II
wouldn't have worked. Yeah!

442
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:34,720
I think it's held
together rather well.

443
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,360
Rather better than I have!

444
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:44,680
Even though in theory I had
the title role of the programme,

445
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,920
because there was Stephen Fry and
Hugh Laurie and Tony Robinson,

446
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,200
there was this wonderful feeling of
being able to delegate,

447
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:54,040
of almost being the man in
the middle, who was able to say,

448
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,400
"Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Robinson
will now be extremely amusing!"

449
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:06,000
Baldrick, I would advise you to make
the explanation you're about to give
phenomenally good.

450
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,320
You said, "Get the door."
Not good enough, you're fired.

451
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:14,080
But, my lord, I've been
in your family since 1532.

452
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:15,760
So has syphilis. Now get out.

453
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:17,600
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Stephen Fry!

454
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,200
Now, Melchy,
you really are a beginner.

455
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,440
You're not even wearing
a pair of comedy breasts.

456
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,120
Au contraire, Blackadder.

457
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,200
You silly, silly people!

458
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,240
To have come all the way to Ndigwe

459
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,600
with a pair of comedy breasts.

460
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,560
Well, down the hatch.

461
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:42,040
CHEERING

462
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,400
They still smell the same.

463
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,320
They're fantastic.

464
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,680
I always felt sorry for those
who came into the Blackadder to,

465
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,320
you know, do their roles,
you know, do their cameos.

466
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:00,240
It's me!

467
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,120
Some people managed it
better than others.

468
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:08,080
Flash by name, flash by nature!

469
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:09,800
Come here, camera.

470
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,480
Come here. Come here.

471
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,280
Hello, girls. It's Rik.

472
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:16,680
Happy Christmas.

473
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:17,920
Wahay!

474
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,120
Hooray! Where have you been?

475
00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:22,160
Where haven't I been? Woof!

476
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:25,640
I was surprised when they asked me.

477
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,480
Very honouring they should ask me.

478
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,160
I said, "All right, so long as I get
more laughs than Rowan."

479
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:34,360
So my old mate
Eddie's getting hitched, eh?

480
00:27:34,360 --> 00:27:38,600
What's are the matter? Can't
stand the pace of the in-crowd?

481
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:42,040
Many actors have many facets.

482
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:45,360
I do... I can do ego...

483
00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:46,560
And that's about it.

484
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,600
Am I pleased to see you or did I
just put a canoe in my pocket?

485
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,240
Down, boy, down!

486
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,160
I've got a big one. It's a big one.

487
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,880
But Flashheart isn't
really you, is it?

488
00:27:57,880 --> 00:27:58,920
I mean, it's... No, my ego.

489
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,120
Who is that?

490
00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:04,640
I don't know but he's in your place.

491
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:06,760
Not for long!

492
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:12,360
It really helped, somebody coming
in with a different style,

493
00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:16,600
shall we say! Which gave everybody a
bit of a kick up the arse, I think.

494
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,120
There was a very good head-butt.
I'm rather proud of that one.

495
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:22,880
I head-butt him through the door.

496
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,400
Look, I only took the part
of Flashheart for the women.

497
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:31,960
Hi, Queenie. You look sexy. Woof!
Woof!

498
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:35,600
He's like Errol Flynn coming in,
you know, and she's, she's obsessed.

499
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:37,920
I've got such a crush on him!

500
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,200
He's just bigger and louder
and got more testosterone.

501
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:42,800
Still worshipping God?

502
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:44,040
Fancier tights.

503
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,200
Last thing I heard,
he started worshipping me!

504
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,920
Ah ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha!

505
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,320
To be standing next to Rowan
is quite an experience.

506
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:54,600
My fiancee, Kate.

507
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:56,440
Hi, baby!

508
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,240
'You see then that Rowan
is also a great reactor.'

509
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:04,560
FRANTIC GRUNTING

510
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,000
And at the end of it, Rik said,
"Did I win?"

511
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,720
Which isn't really in the spirit of
the ensemble, is it?

512
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:16,560
I don't know. Of course
I haven't counted,

513
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,760
but I got three-and-a-half rounds
of applause and he didn't get one.

514
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:21,080
Hurrah!

515
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:28,120
Series two was a brilliant
success so nothing stood in
the way of series three.

516
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,680
The dastardly duo moved
from Elizabethan excess

517
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:36,200
to the bewigged and perfumed
finery of the 18th century.

518
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:38,880
Series three, we took a big old
gamble at the beginning,

519
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,920
that we ended up
with such a small cast,

520
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:45,000
because there'd been sort of five
of them, hadn't there?

521
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,560
There'd been Melchett and Nursey and
Queenie and Percy and Baldrick

522
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:52,280
and Rowan, and this time, there was
just Baldrick, Rowan and Hugh.

523
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:59,720
It was the casting of Prince George
alongside Blackadder and Baldrick
that brought new life to the show.

524
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,960
The role went to an actor
who's since quickened
the pulse of America.

525
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,640
Roaaaarrr!

526
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,000
It's a trial, John, you've no idea.

527
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,800
Have you learned
anything about medicine?
Can you remember all the stuff?

528
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:28,120
For about 20 minutes.

529
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,760
You know, I can hold it in my head
for about 20 minutes, and I could...

530
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:33,720
For about 20 minutes,
I could probably

531
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:35,960
do a coronary bypass operation.

532
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:40,600
If you catch me at the right hour,
then by all means

533
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,280
have an aortic infarction
at my feet and I'll fix it.

534
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,520
But, if it's the wrong hour,
you're a goner.

535
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,120
I have to say, it's that my
favourite series, Hugh,

536
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:51,920
that one, and
it's because of you,

537
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:54,640
and I remember saying to
you on the set that one day,

538
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,000
you are gonna
be such a world-famous actor.

539
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:58,720
Stop it. I told you. Stop it.

540
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:02,080
I bet you say that to all the
actors in Blackadder, third series.

541
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:04,320
Hugh's always self-deprecating
about it,

542
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:05,880
but that's the kind of bloke he is.

543
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:07,440
He says, "Oh, I just shouted a lot."

544
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:09,440
I'm a gay bachelor, Blackadder.

545
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:14,480
I'm a roarer, a rogerer,
a gorger and a puker.

546
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:18,200
I can't marry. I'm young,
I'm firm-buttocked, I'm...

547
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:19,600
Broke.

548
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:21,200
Well, yes, I suppose so.

549
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:24,680
You used to get quite stressed
when you were the Prince Regent.

550
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,480
I came pre-stressed.

551
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:29,600
No stress was added.

552
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,720
I mean, that's what I do.
I don't know why.

553
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:35,760
I wish I didn't, I wish I could sort
of relax and enjoy things more,

554
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:37,720
but I don't,
I worry about them.

555
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,360
Just occasionally one can
say, "Come on, Hugh."

556
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,680
Is the entire idea of your misery
for us to spend the next three hours

557
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:45,240
telling you how great you are?

558
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,280
Because, whether or not that was
the idea, that is the end result!

559
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:54,800
Prince George is shy and just
pretends to be bluff and
crass and unbelievably thick.

560
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:59,640
Whilst deep down he is a
soft little marshmallowy,
pigletty type of creature.

561
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,400
But I do love the Prince Regent.

562
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:02,440
I love his...

563
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,160
His attempt to be
better all the time.

564
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,040
That's one of the things that's
so likeable about him, is,

565
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,160
he's trying to improve himself, and
we know how doomed it is.

566
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,680
'That vacant, panicky look
in his eye. It's bliss.'

567
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,920
I terminated my uninterrupted
categorisation

568
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,200
of the vocabulary of
our post-Norman tongue.

569
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,200
Well, I don't know what you're
talking about,

570
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,680
but it sounds damn saucy,
you lucky thing!

571
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:32,560
The classic episode of series three
saw the arrival of Robbie Coltrane
as Dr Johnson.

572
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:33,720
Here it is, sir.

573
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,040
Author of the
very first English dictionary.

574
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:40,600
This book, sir, contains every
word in our beloved language.

575
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,080
Every single one, sir?

576
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:44,880
Every single one, sir. Oh.

577
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:48,360
Well, in that case, sir, I hope you
will not object if I also offer

578
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:51,480
the doctor my most enthusiastic
contrafibularities.

579
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:53,800
What?

580
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:55,880
Contrafibularities, sir.

581
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,760
It is a common word down our way.
Damn!

582
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:01,480
Oh, I'm sorry, sir.

583
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,360
I'm anaspeptic, frasmotic,

584
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,320
even compunctuous to have
caused you such pericombobulations.

585
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:12,080
What, what, what?

586
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:15,400
The funny thing about the dictionary
episode is there are things

587
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:18,080
in it which I really don't like.

588
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,480
Robbie's wig, which doesn't
fit properly. The poets.

589
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,040
Be quiet, sir!

590
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:24,840
Can't you see we're dying?

591
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:28,240
The dream. I suddenly
realised I don't like dreams.

592
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:33,080
Baldrick! Who gave you
permission to turn into an Alsatian?

593
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:35,480
Oh, God, it's a dream, isn't it?

594
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,760
It's a bloody dream.

595
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:41,800
But the fundamental idea of the
plot was a brilliant moment for us.

596
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:45,240
Baldrick, where's the manuscript?

597
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,920
You mean the big
papery thing tied up with string?

598
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:51,160
Yes, Baldrick, the manuscript,
belonging to Dr Johnson.

599
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:55,400
So you're asking where the big
papery thing tied up with string,

600
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,920
belonging to the batey fellow in
the black coat who just left, is?

601
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,120
Yes, Baldrick, I am.

602
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:02,560
And if you don't answer,

603
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:06,000
then the booted bony thing with
five toes on the end of my leg

604
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:08,000
will soon connect sharply

605
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,280
with the soft dangly collection
of objects in your trousers.

606
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,120
I can remember Richard saying,
"I've had a great idea.

607
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:16,920
"It took Dr Johnson 25
years to write his dictionary.

608
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,640
"How about he finishes it,
lends it to Blackadder,

609
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:23,400
"Baldrick puts it on the fire,
Blackadder's got a weekend to
rewrite the dictionary."

610
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:25,000
Now what about D?

611
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,520
I'm quite pleased with dog.
Yes, and your definition of dog is?

612
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:30,360
Not a cat.

613
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,200
And I just thought, that is
such a beautiful conceit,

614
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,480
and that's a lot better than writing
three good knob gags,

615
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:41,600
which is what
I was sort of trying to do.

616
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:47,440
The dictionary episode was an
appropriate highlight for a series

617
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,280
that revelled in the richness
of the English language,

618
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:54,200
and was never shy
of a scintillating simile.

619
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:59,760
He's madder than Mad
Jack McMad, the winner of last year's
Mr Madman competition.

620
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,240
You look as happy as a man who
thought a cat had done its business

621
00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:05,480
on his pie but it turned
out to be an extra big blackberry.

622
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,960
I'm as poor as a church mouse
that's had an enormous tax bill

623
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,800
on the very day his wife ran off with
another mouse taking all the cheese.

624
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:16,480
A burned novel is like a
burned dog... Oh, shut up!

625
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,840
The Blackadder scripts are so
revered that all these years later,

626
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,120
the team still pore over the
subtleties of their trade

627
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:31,080
with fellow literary luminaries,
wherever they can be found.

628
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:33,920
Do you want it dedicated
to somebody? To Derrick, please.

629
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:36,560
Thank you. I love Time Team.

630
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,600
You really are a national treasure.

631
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,240
Have you got a favourite quotation?

632
00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:46,040
We used to play the game of
guessing who had written which line.

633
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:47,520
We were invariably wrong.

634
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:49,080
Thanks.

635
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:56,680
When it came to the rehearsals,
and this got more intense
series by series,

636
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:06,360
everyone became fantastically and
wonderfully greedy.

637
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,160
arguing about the script and
pulling the script to pieces.

638
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,760
There was one where I said,
"I have a message, my lord",

639
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,760
and Rowan said, "That's the
worst message I've ever read",

640
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,640
and we all went, "Urgh",
and it ended up...

641
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:23,000
"That's the worst message
I've ever heard since..."

642
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:26,320
..Lord Nelson's famous signal at
the Battle of the Nile,

643
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,520
"England knows Lady Hamilton

644
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:33,040
"is a virgin, poke my eye out and
cut off my arm if I'm wrong."

645
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,280
People fought for their patch.

646
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:40,640
Nobody just toed the line and stood
where they were told to stand

647
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:42,400
and did what they were told to do.

648
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,800
Everyone stood up for
themselves and their characters.

649
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,880
It was very free... Yes.

650
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:49,960
And creative.
Richard wouldn't have said that.

651
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:55,360
No, no! "Just read it out" was
Richard's... "Just read it out!"

652
00:36:55,360 --> 00:37:00,040
They would sit around for the
entire time discussing the script.

653
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:01,680
We'd sometimes say,

654
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:05,120
"If you stood up and tried to
act this script out,

655
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,680
"you might find out
things about it."

656
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:11,400
I hate to raise this having worked
on it for three hours

657
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,280
but is it a good joke,
Hugh, since you suggested it?

658
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:15,880
This was nothing to do with me.

659
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:17,560
It was!

660
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,040
It was up on the board.
I just read it out.

661
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:24,320
John and Richard and
Hugh and Stephen

662
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:29,320
conduct themselves in a very
affable way,

663
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,520
and when they talk
about Blackadder now,

664
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,560
it all seems like it was
a bit jolly,

665
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:38,840
slightly sticky sometimes,
but basically fine.

666
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,760
I don't remember it quite like that.
It was hard.

667
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:46,960
Hours would pass and packets of
cigarettes would be got through,

668
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:51,640
huge quantities of polystyrene
hideous muddy coffee would be drunk

669
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,920
in an effort
to try and get the script right.

670
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:57,760
Hang on, there's something
wrong here.

671
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:02,840
Surely if you're ordering a cab
for a Mr Redgrave...
oh, from Arnos Grove?

672
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:06,720
Sometimes it was very tense, I
remember some difficult times

673
00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:12,480
when we appeared to be just
sitting around for 2.5 hours,

674
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:19,240
bemoaning the lack of writing
clarity in a particular scene

675
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:22,600
and desperately trying to think how
it might be re-orientated to work.

676
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:24,760
Just change it to "for".

677
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,040
If you're a young writer
and in with your mates,

678
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:31,480
and because you've known them
for a long time,

679
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:34,480
they're going to be able to slag you
off in a way other people

680
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:37,360
probably won't now
because you're becoming successful.

681
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:38,560
That's going to be difficult.

682
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,080
I remember this like
a heart attack....

683
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:48,480
That was when I felt the analysis
was getting overblown

684
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:51,560
and I remember feeling
it was better,

685
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:55,800
we're now feeling a duty
to open everything up at all times.

686
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:59,120
I thought it was Mr Redgrave
ordering the cab but in fact

687
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:05,800
what you're saying is Mr Redgrave
is the person who's going to be
picked up who's on the top bell, yes?

688
00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:11,320
'That's roughly how it
was when it was good.'

689
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,400
And when it wasn't so good,
it wasn't really like that.

690
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,200
It was more strained.

691
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:20,560
I'm not saying those moments
were rare because they weren't.

692
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:25,880
They were quite commonplace.
There were lots of longeurs between.

693
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,840
'People sitting
with their heads in their hands.'

694
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,960
And a cab...for a Mr Redgrave,

695
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:37,120
picking up from 14 Arnos Grove,
ring top bell.

696
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:45,840
On the back of the third
series, Blackadder was awarded
its own Christmas special,

697
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:50,360
a parody of Dickens' Christmas Carol
with Ebenezer Blackadder in
very different form.

698
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:59,800
But the fourth series would take our
comic anti-heroes into a place where
heroes dwell - the First World War.

699
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,560
Writer Ben Elton
and producer John Lloyd

700
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:13,000
have come to the Somme to reflect
on the setting of the final series.

701
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,880
I've always been so interested
in the First World War.

702
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:19,920
Yet I've never been
to the cemeteries.

703
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:22,240
We've all seen the footage,

704
00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:28,200
many a panning shot, as we're doing
now, but until you actually
stand amongst

705
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:32,880
tens of thousands of crosses, each
with a name on it, it's really...

706
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:40,240
I had a grandfather fight on either
side. Did you know my German
grandfather got an Iron Cross? No.

707
00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:42,560
Yes, he got an Iron Cross.

708
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:47,760
Which, actually, is buried in
England because as Jewish refugees,
they escaped

709
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:50,400
from Nazi Europe...escaped, got out,

710
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:55,960
my grandad brought his Iron Cross
with him and my grandma,

711
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:58,920
on discovering it, was horrified.

712
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:02,200
Here we are, German accents,
Iron Cross,

713
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:06,840
people might put two and two
together so she buried it
in a garden in Hampstead.

714
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:13,360
What we discussed back in '88 when
we were writing it was not

715
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:19,200
taking easy laughs at the expense
of such mass heroism.

716
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:23,680
Coming here today,
I'm very glad we didn't.

717
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:31,000
By the time we got to Blackadder
Goes Forth, we'd always said that,
more than anything,

718
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:34,600
we'd like to create a series

719
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:36,920
that was very claustrophobic

720
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:39,760
where the five or six of us
who were the performers

721
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:41,360
were trapped in a space

722
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:48,840
and what better way to feel that
notion of claustrophobia than in the
trenches in the First World War?

723
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,440
Hear the words I sing,

724
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:54,560
war's a horrid thing.

725
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:58,120
So I sing, sing, sing,

726
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:00,760
ding-a-ling-a-ling.

727
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:05,880
It was a peculiar and bold thing
to make a comedy out of,

728
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:10,240
but ultimately a very
sympathetic and respectful one

729
00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:15,320
even though the characters were
absurd and moronic at times.

730
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:22,760
It never sort of disrespected
their courage or sacrifice.

731
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,640
I joined up straightaway, sir.

732
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:28,280
August 4th, 1914,
what a day that was.

733
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:30,880
Myself and the rest of the fellows
leapfrogging down

734
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:34,280
to the Cambridge recruiting office
and then playing
tiddlywinks in the queue.

735
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,640
We'd hammered Oxford's
tiddlywinkers only the week before

736
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:40,080
and there we were,
off to hammer the Boche.

737
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:41,920
And how are the boys now?

738
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:46,160
Well, Jocko and the Badger bought
it at the first Ypres, unfortunately.

739
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:48,200
Quite a shock, that.

740
00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:51,880
Those awful policies, of what
were called the Pals Brigades,

741
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:55,760
because in 1914 people joined up
together, whole gangs, the pub would

742
00:42:55,760 --> 00:43:01,120
march to the recruiting station,
a cricket team or the tiddlywinks
team as we said in Blackadder.

743
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,640
They'd all go together and the idea
was they will fight together,

744
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:07,920
fight for each other and this
industrial war didn't have time

745
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:12,200
for people to fight for each other
because people would be mown down
in an instant.

746
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:17,440
Gosh, I suppose I'm the only one
of the Trinity Tiddlers still alive.

747
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:20,760
There's a thought
and not a jolly one.

748
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:25,840
People don't stop making jokes
because somebody is killed
around the corner. In many ways,

749
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:32,280
life, as people say who've been
fighting in real wars, life becomes
very precious and pumped up.

750
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:35,200
Baldrick, what are you doing
out there?

751
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:38,240
I'm carving something
on this bullet, sir. What?

752
00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:41,880
I'm carving, "Baldrick", sir.

753
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:46,280
Why? It's a cunning plan, actually.
Of course it is.

754
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:50,040
You know they say somewhere there's
a bullet with your name on it?

755
00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:53,360
Yeeeeees.

756
00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:59,280
I thought if I owned the bullet with
my name on, I'd never get hit by it.

757
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:02,560
One of the things that strikes me
about that last series

758
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:05,400
is how isolated all the characters
in it are.

759
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:06,680
Are you a bit cheesed off, sir?

760
00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:10,600
George, the day this war began
I was cheesed off.

761
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:15,680
Within ten minutes of you turning up,
I'd finished the cheese and moved
on to the coffee and cigars.

762
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:20,840
The world weariness of Blackadder
was something extraordinary,

763
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:22,440
something beaten down.

764
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,720
He was not necessary going to win
all the time.

765
00:44:25,720 --> 00:44:29,800
And knew he wasn't, which gave it
a darker edge, I thought.

766
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:34,240
Baldrick finds his absolute
apotheosis as the Tommy.

767
00:44:34,240 --> 00:44:37,680
He can make the best of everything,
turn things to his advantage,

768
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,800
however ghastly it is.
He can find a better puddle to go to.

769
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:45,440
I believe Baldrick is the key
to Blackadder and the key
to why it's popular.

770
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:50,920
He's the common man. We
all identify with this downtrodden
guy who's not respected by anybody,

771
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:57,800
even when he's supposed be stupid,
Baldrick's analysis of everything
is simple but basically truthful.

772
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:01,240
Are you looking forward
to the big push?

773
00:45:01,240 --> 00:45:05,320
No, sir, I'm absolutely terrified.

774
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:09,000
Hmmm, the healthy humour
of the honest Tommy. Ha-ha!

775
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:16,080
I had the privilege of performing
a part that represented the ordinary
lives of the grandfathers

776
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:20,000
of an awful lot of people
in the country in which I live.

777
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:26,240
But really it was for them
to imbue Baldrick with that notion
rather than me.

778
00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:28,080
I was just a bloke
who couldn't make coffee.

779
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,520
Baldrick, fix us some coffee,
will you?

780
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:33,720
And try to make it taste
slightly less like mud this time.

781
00:45:33,720 --> 00:45:37,000
Not easy, I'm afraid, Captain.
Why is this? Because it IS mud!

782
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,680
In the original script,
Ben had written this line

783
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:43,920
about Baldrick saying
he'd made the coffee out of mud.

784
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:46,600
We ran out of coffee 13 months ago.

785
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,800
So every time I've drunk your
coffee since, I have in fact
been drinking hot mud.

786
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:54,680
And in rehearsals, as was so
often the case, someone said,

787
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:57,160
"Well, shouldn't there be milk
in the coffee?"

788
00:45:57,160 --> 00:45:58,720
Well, saliva.

789
00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:01,000
And then there should be sugar.

790
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,440
Which is? Dandruff.

791
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:10,160
And then I know this was Tim
McInnerny, very late in the week,
he suddenly said,

792
00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:15,800
just for us, not cos he thought
it would go in the script, "We
could always make it cappuccino."

793
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:17,840
BALDRICK SPITS

794
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:22,840
Here you are, sir.

795
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:24,600
Ah, cappuccino.

796
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:33,880
Have you got any of that
brown stuff you sprinkle on the top?

797
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:36,920
Well, I'm sure I could... No, no.

798
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,560
'In the initial rehearsals,
he wasn't even called Darling.'

799
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:44,680
He was called Captain Cartwright,
which is kind of dull.

800
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,320
I didn't really know who he was
and couldn't get an angle on him.

801
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,160
I had this bizarre idea that
maybe if there was something

802
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:56,200
laughable about him, teaseable, and
then it occurred to me maybe a name.

803
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:57,240
A really silly name.

804
00:46:57,240 --> 00:46:59,080
What's going on, Darling?

805
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:02,520
Suddenly, this character was born out
of nowhere just cos of the name.

806
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,120
You never mentioned this to me, sir.

807
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:06,160
Well, we have to have some secrets,
don't we, Darling?

808
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:07,760
It's such a simple joke,

809
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:09,640
calling someone Darling,

810
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:12,680
especially if
he's such a bitter, nasty man.

811
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:15,520
The way Stephen could
come out, "Oh, Darling."

812
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:17,080
Get a laugh every single time.

813
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:20,520
Captain Darling?
Funny name for a guy, isn't it?

814
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:24,960
Last person I called "darling"
was pregnant 20 seconds later.

815
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:29,560
Every time his name is mentioned
it's like a knife in his heart,
twisting.

816
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:36,200
His hatred and self-loathing
and self-denial is getting
more and more tortured.

817
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:37,680
Just doing my job, Blackadder.

818
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:42,720
Obeying orders and of course having
enormous fun into the bargain.

819
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:48,160
Darling and Blackadder are kind of
the same. They're lower middle-class,

820
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:49,720
semi-gentlemen.

821
00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:57,200
Obviously one of them has connived
himself onto the staff and the other
one is bad-lucked into the trenches.

822
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:03,440
You're a damned fine chap,
not a pen-pushing, desk-sucking
blotter-jotter like Darling here.

823
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:05,280
Eh, Darling? No, sir.

824
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:12,720
Oh, you're always so good at this.
Oh, yes.

825
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:23,200
Oddly enough, these feet
aren't the same feet I used to play
General Melchett in Blackadder.

826
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:30,560
Those were my early feet,
I lost those feet in a card game
to Keith Allen in 1992.

827
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:33,320
These are my second pair of feet.

828
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:36,560
Young people playing old people
is very funny.

829
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:41,720
Because I was in my 20s and I was
playing a general, it was somehow

830
00:48:41,720 --> 00:48:45,920
funnier than if I'd been the right
age to be a general which I now am.

831
00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:48,160
It had to be a 30-year-old
playing a 60-year-old.

832
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:51,200
If it had been a 60-year-old
actor it would have been different.

833
00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:53,240
It might have been funny
but in a different way.

834
00:48:53,240 --> 00:48:55,240
It wouldn't have worked
the way Melchett worked.

835
00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:58,200
It's the authority of youth.

836
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:04,600
Slightly red cheeks
I remember having cos he was
constantly puffing and blowing.

837
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:09,480
Constantly... I had in my head that
he had piles so when I sat down...

838
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:14,960
Oh! Like that, these strange noises,
bleats and baas.

839
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:17,120
Baa! Baa! Baa!

840
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:19,400
Baa!

841
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:24,400
Baa! It's an extraordinary gift to
play a character who's afraid of
no-one, who's in supreme command.

842
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:27,360
It was just wonderfully...
He was seamless.

843
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:32,640
There was this feeling of an
unstoppable train of a performance.

844
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:35,040
Who is the judge, by the way? Baa!

845
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,120
I'm dead.

846
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:42,040
Come on. We'll get this over in five
minutes and have a spot of lunch.

847
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:44,000
The court is now in session.

848
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:46,720
General Sir Anthony Cecil
Hogmanay Melchett in the chair.

849
00:49:46,720 --> 00:49:52,320
I remember five or six years after
Blackadder IV, I was walking along

850
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:57,200
the street and somebody shouted at
me, "You bastard pigging murderer!"

851
00:49:57,200 --> 00:49:59,640
I thought, "Oh, God, it's a loony."

852
00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:04,440
So I quickened my step and then I
heard footsteps hurrying after me.

853
00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:07,160
"Mr Fry, Mr Fry!" I went, "Yes?"

854
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:09,200
He said, "Sorry, you seem upset."

855
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:11,280
I said, "You called me a
bastard pigging murderer."

856
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,560
He said, "No,
I said Flanders pigeon murderer."

857
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:19,440
The case before us
is that of the Crown
versus Captain Edmund Blackadder.

858
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:23,800
The Flanders pigeon murderer.

859
00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:28,760
Clerk, hand me the black cap,
I'll be needing that.

860
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:31,120
I love a fair trial.

861
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:39,280
For all the comedy bawling and
bleating, the final episode saw
events take an extraordinary turn

862
00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:43,960
as Captain Blackadder and his troops
braced themselves for
the inevitable.

863
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:49,600
Don't forget your stick, lieutenant.
Rather, sir. I wouldn't want to
face a machine-gun without this.

864
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:55,760
I just remember feeling, you know,
the impending doom, for my character,

865
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:57,920
'and I remember feeling

866
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:02,000
'this strange sort of knot
in the pit of my stomach.'

867
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:04,280
It was the first time, as an actor,

868
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:07,680
that I had felt
the predicament of my character.

869
00:51:07,680 --> 00:51:10,320
'I was going to die
at the end of the week.'

870
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:14,600
'It was much more like
a serious play or a drama'

871
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:17,560
as all the comedy kind of melts
and fades out of it,

872
00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:19,440
and it becomes sadder and sadder,

873
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:20,920
'and more and more tragic,

874
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:24,960
'and, eventually,
almost unbearably moving and sad.

875
00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:27,480
'It's valedictory.'

876
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:38,680
I hope no-one was left in any
doubt of the respect

877
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:41,600
I think
everybody on the team had for...

878
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:45,120
for the sacrifices made and the
honour of the people involved.

879
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:49,400
But it was a damn silly war
and if ever there was a subject,

880
00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:51,920
you know, requiring of satire,

881
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:54,400
it's people,
no matter how honourably

882
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:58,280
and no matter how nobly,
blindly going to war.

883
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:02,240
Company, one pace forward!

884
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:07,200
On the signal, Company will advance.

885
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:08,560
WHISTLE BLOWS

886
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:10,520
Good luck, everyone.

887
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:12,080
WHISTLE BLOWS

888
00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:15,640
CHARGE!
PERCUSSIVE RATTLE OF GUNFIRE

889
00:52:15,640 --> 00:52:18,920
In those days, you had to get out
of the studio by 10 o'clock.

890
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:22,040
If you didn't, the electricians
would pull the switch.

891
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:26,480
'At ten to ten, we finished filming
in our normal studio,'

892
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,560
we then had to race across
to the other studio

893
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:34,200
and it was then that we saw this
no-man's land set for the first time

894
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:35,920
and it looked dreadful.

895
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:40,640
OK, well, this, apparently,
is the original footage

896
00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:42,760
from the very last scene
of Blackadder IV

897
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:44,360
where they all go over the top.

898
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:47,640
I haven't seen this since 1989.

899
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:50,440
Action! Charge!

900
00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:54,920
They're actually only running -
what? -

901
00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:56,960
15 yards
before they hit the barbed wire

902
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:58,960
and stand around
looking like lemons,

903
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:01,400
then pretend to die
and it's very embarrassing.

904
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:05,480
CHARGE!

905
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,880
RATTLE OF MACHINE GUNS

906
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:12,920
GUNFIRE CONTINUES

907
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:21,200
HE CHUCKLES

908
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:24,080
It's pretty unconvincing, isn't it?

909
00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:28,240
Now they've done
a close-up here.

910
00:53:28,240 --> 00:53:32,280
There's a ghastly shot
of Hugh and Tim

911
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:34,360
and Baldrick dying.

912
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:39,560
Rowan pretending to die
but keeping his eyes open.

913
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:41,560
He's getting up and he looks cross.

914
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:43,560
Well, that's...

915
00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:46,920
me looking decidedly miffed.

916
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:49,160
And that's the end of it.

917
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:51,480
I can remember coming away thinking,

918
00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:54,560
"I've no idea how we're
going to end the series."

919
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:58,080
I thought they would end it before
we actually went over the top.

920
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:01,160
It's one of the lowest points,
I think, of my television career

921
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:04,760
thinking, "The end of this amazing
series and I've just screwed it up."

922
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:05,840
As it was so obvious

923
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:10,480
that we had so little material to
work with, we had to really slow

924
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:14,560
the pictures right down in order
to stretch them in time

925
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,400
but that produced
an incredibly good effect

926
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:21,680
with the flashes which were going
over on the right of the picture

927
00:54:21,680 --> 00:54:24,920
and the debris
that falls over Rowan's character.

928
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:29,000
In slow motion,
this suddenly achieved a grandeur

929
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:32,240
which was not obvious
in the full motion.

930
00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:35,280
The assistant editor said,
"What if we slowed the sound down?"

931
00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:37,640
ECHOING GUNFIRE

932
00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:39,760
And suddenly we had
this - pwuffch! -

933
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:44,000
this slow-motion sound effect and it
starts to get really quite spooky.

934
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:48,320
BLACKADDER THEME AT SLOW SPEED

935
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:57,840
Having got Rowan virtually obscured
by the debris,

936
00:54:57,840 --> 00:54:59,440
to go to the next shot

937
00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:03,360
where we're now
in a blank no-man's land wide shot,

938
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:07,560
our characters are seen virtually
to melt into the landscape.

939
00:55:09,960 --> 00:55:12,680
And then somebody,
I think it was the PA, said,

940
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,320
"We should get some poppies.
What if...? I think..."

941
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,960
And someone got very excited and
ran upstairs to the picture library

942
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:22,400
and got a still,
a transparency, of some poppies.

943
00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:28,000
The last decision,
some bright spark in sound,

944
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:30,120
said,
"Let's put some birdsong on it."

945
00:55:30,120 --> 00:55:34,880
TRILL OF BIRDSONG

946
00:55:34,880 --> 00:55:36,360
Even in the edit

947
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:42,120
it was obviously one of the most
moving things that I had ever seen.

948
00:55:47,240 --> 00:55:50,880
In the 19 years since the series
ended, the team have each gone on

949
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:54,080
to achieve greatness
in their own right.

950
00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:55,920
But for all of them, there remains

951
00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,360
something special
about the Blackadder era.

952
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:06,480
'I think that I'd have to say
that it just seems an unbelievably'

953
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:10,480
lucky break that something
which was just a bit of work

954
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:14,640
that I did for a chunk of time,
you know, doing the best I could

955
00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:19,920
with people I really liked,
has turned out to last so well.

956
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,080
'I don't think there'd been anything

957
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:24,560
'that enjoyed history like that.'

958
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:29,440
The relationship between lords
and ladies and dukes and peasants.

959
00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:33,520
The whole panoply and richness of
what it is to come from our culture.

960
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:37,160
'It was just
a very enjoyable experience'

961
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:40,800
of spending extended periods of time

962
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:46,040
with people with whom you felt
a tremendous creative empathy.

963
00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:48,680
I was doing Time Team once
and somebody said me,

964
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,360
"Here, aren't you that bloke
that used to be funny?"

965
00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:55,240
THEY CHUCKLE

966
00:56:55,240 --> 00:56:57,480
Only one question remains.

967
00:56:57,480 --> 00:56:59,520
Dear, oh, dear. Oh, Lord.

968
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:03,560
Will they ever be funny together
again?

969
00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:06,000
Would you do it again? What?

970
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:08,680
Blackadder. No.

971
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:10,280
Because?

972
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:12,280
HE SIGHS

973
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:15,560
Too old...for one thing.

974
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:20,240
I don't think people want to see us
the way we look now. I really don't.

975
00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:21,920
They want those memories.

976
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:24,680
There's often talk
of a fifth series.

977
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,880
If you had to do another one, what
setting would you like to do it in?

978
00:57:28,880 --> 00:57:34,640
If we'd done another one, I think we
were going to set it in the '60s.

979
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,760
He had this idea of Adder
as a sort of Brian Epstein figure

980
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:39,720
and Baldrick as a drummer,

981
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:42,600
a Ringo-style drummer,
called Bald Rick

982
00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:44,120
who has to wear a Beatle wig.

983
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:46,960
Rowan as the bastard son
of Queen Elizabeth II

984
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:49,880
but also running a rock band
in the King's Road.

985
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:52,800
It's already sounding shit.
That'll be why we never made it.

986
00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:57,800
The one I really liked the idea for
was the one set in Neanderthal times.

987
00:57:57,800 --> 00:58:01,320
Out of the jungle comes
homo Blackadder.

988
00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:03,880
I thought you meant gay Blackadder!

989
00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:05,920
Oh, I thought you meant
homo Blackadder.

990
00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:08,760
I was just going, "Not many parts
for girls there then!"

991
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:11,000
What about you, Tony,
what would you've liked?

992
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,920
We talked about loads of ones.

993
00:58:13,920 --> 00:58:16,480
I love the idea of a cowboy one.

994
00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:19,160
I'd do that. Definitely.

995
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:22,600
Where I get to be a sort of Calamity
Jane or something. Fantastic.

996
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:25,240
In a prisoner-of-war camp
in the Second World War.

997
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:28,680
I've always personally favoured
the Colditz idea.

998
00:58:28,680 --> 00:58:33,320
But maybe it's best to leave
these things as a memory.

999
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:37,400
SCOTTISH ACCENT: Aye, times past.
That's what they were.

1000
00:58:37,400 --> 00:58:40,840
# Blackadder, Blackadder

1001
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:44,440
# His taste is rather odd

1002
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:48,080
# Blackadder, Blackadder

1003
00:58:48,080 --> 00:58:51,640
# A randy little sod!

1004
00:58:51,640 --> 00:58:55,080
# Blackadder, Blackadder

1005
00:58:55,080 --> 00:58:56,800
# Who gives a toss?

1006
00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:58,720
# No-one! #